A Witch's Tale of the 4th Holy Grail War
by lordlee2
Summary: In the war of kings and heroes, an unexpected guest is called forth.


Uryuu Ryuunosuke, it could be said, was a hobbyist at heart. His hobby wasn't exactly standard fare granted, being as it was serial murder, but it was still a hobby. So naturally, like any true hobbyist, when it one day started to get dull, he didn't simply stop doing it. Instead, like the resourceful and dedicated (to murder) young fellow he was, he tried to spice things up a little.

In this case, his method of creating a new flavor of murder was found in his family's old shed, right next to where he hid his first victim. After saying hello to his sister as was proper (she didn't say anything back, how rude), Ruunosuke happened upon one of his family's old tomes, some crazy writing about summoning demons that his ancestor's wrote up. Ryuunosuke found it a largely dry read, finding lots of boring ramblings about servants and magic cups or something, but he had to admit the rituals themselves sounded like great fun. They had all the classic horror elements, ritual murders, circles of blood, offerings of children, the works. It was some some genuinely praiseworthy stuff, or at least he thought so. It was also a lot flashier than his usual fare, he'd probably have to skip town after doing it once or twice. Oh but what fun he'd have before he did.

Material gathering was pretty easy, the young man found. So many people just never lock their windows, or expect to be stabbed in their bed. Admittedly binding and gagging the living sacrifice up was a bit more trouble, because little kids just squirm so much, but killing the boy's sister, mother, and father was quite easy! After that it was a fairly simple matter of dragging the bodies into a nice big room, the living room in this case, and piling them together in a corner. The boy really started freaking out at that point, one could guess being put on top of his family's corpses must have been a new and unappealing experience for him.

Ryuunosuke kicked the boy, "Oh calm down will ya kid? It's not gonna be that long either way." The serial killer waved his family's old book in the boy's face, "I just gotta do a bit of finger painting, chant some mumbo jumbo, and if my ancestor's were right, then abracadabra, instant monster!" Ignoring the kid's now even more frantic screaming, Uryuu turned around and began roughly replicating the summoning circle shown in the spellbook. Occasionally Ryuunosuke would jam his hand in one of the corpses behind him, redipping his metaphorical brush. Eventually, he was satisfied and stood up, surveying his work. "Now let's see... I read the chant they've got in here, but it says that so long as there's a summon that suits you it'll come pretty much no matter what you say." The young man grinned like a kid in a candy store (the actual kid screamed like a boy whose family had been slaughtered by a serial killer and piled up beneath him but who had been muffled by a gag), "ooh I hope there's one that matches me... Well that assumes that this wasn't written by loonies of course, which hey, isn't that likely." Laughing at his own little joke, the serial killer put the book aside and assumed the ritual posture illustrated within the pages, "With this offering of flesh and blood, I, Uryuu Ryuunosuke, artist of flesh, blood, and bone, call you up from the fiery depths. I've no preference for your face or form, I care not for what powers you command, I ask only that you understand my own sense of beauty!"

Ryuunosuke's impromptu goth poetry was met, for a moment, with no response. The killer sighed, thinking what a shame it was that something cool like a wizard from hell didn't pop up. And then the circle suddenly lit up like a lightbulb, blinding both the boy and his captor. Ryuunosuke didn't mind though, since it meant that without question, something interesting was about to happen. Excitedly, the murderer rubbed his eyes, attempting to clear out his vision more quickly. When it finally did return, he was met with a truly mystifying sight. "...Butterflies?"

Yes, that's definitely what he was seeing. Butterflies. Lots of them. Gold ones too, which was probably the oddest thing about them, aside of the fact that they were flocking happily around a gorgeous looking blond woman in a black and gold dress, who was standing in the middle of the circle of blood. For a normal person the woman herself probably would have attracted more attention, but Ryuunosuke was more concerned with how the butterflies clashed so much with his redecoration of the house (blood was the new color of the year every year, in his opinion).

The woman spoke aloud, but was not really addressing one in the room, "My my, to think I'd be invited to a banquet that only the famous should attend. And here I thought I'd sealed the story away forever in the witch's darkness. I guess someone either escaped my tale or managed to get a message out. Well it was an island tale, so I suppose they might have used Justice Wargrave's method... Ah well it doesn't matter." The woman sighed, then addressed Ryuunosuke directly, "You there, I am Servant Caster. Are you the one who summoned me?"

The serial killer was pulled out of his insect induced reverie and responded, "Ah yeah, name's Uryuu Ryuunosuke. I must say lady, I'm surprised. I thought demon's would be uglier, and have less uh..." the murderer waved his hand at the butterflies that filled the room, "...less shiny hangers on. But I guess it doesn't matter in the end. As I said, my name's Uryuu Ryuunosuke, and I'm a serial killer!" The young man declared his chosen walk of life with pride, then indicated the child in the corner. "The book said that you guys eat life force or something, so I got you a snack all ready to go!"

The woman took a small puff from her golden pipe, then sighed, shuffling over to the child. The boy had by this point been terrified beyond further noise, and merely watched with a mixture of horror and resignation as the strange woman knelt over him and... cut him loose.

Ryuunosuke demonstrated his surprise with an air of class befitting his serial killer status. "The FUCK?" That air of class being 'low' class of course.

The child himself could only look up at the woman, confusion in his eyes as she lifted him up to his feet and eyed him sadly. After a brief moment's silence, she sighed sadly. "...I'm sorry that it couldn't go better than this for you," the woman placed a hand on his chest, and gave a mournful smile, "but do not worry. For soon I shall open the way to the golden land and you will be able to smile again." The child didn't respond. After all, the moment the woman finished speaking, life left his body, and he simply slumped over, never to speak again.

"Wait, WHAT?" Ryuunosuke cried out in surprise. "You can kill people by just TOUCHING them? That's awesome! But..." he paused and placed his hand on his chin, pondering the situation. "Is that it? Doesn't seem very demonic, more like a lethal injection, quick and clean."

The woman who called herself Caster stood up and looked her summoner in the eye. "Of course it's clean. Elegance is after all, the most important factor for a witch like myself. And as for you, Mr. Serial Killer, you should have more pride in your work?"

This woman just got more confusing by the minute, or at least Ryuunosuke thought so. Well when all else fails, best to just straight up ask, he supposed. "What do you mean more pride in my work?"

"The tale you write," she gestured at the mess the man had made, the piles of corpses, the smears of blood and gore, "is sloppy. There's no elegance, no methodology. Keep this up and event he most mediocre detective will corner you. A killer owes it to the detective to create a puzzle. Obscure the solution, hide the clues."

"Uh... the killer owes the DETECTIVE? Lady I don't know how it works in hell, but generally the criminal doesn't owe jack scrap to the cops." Ryuunosuke started to laugh at the witch's bizarre logic.

"Oh? Then who will recognize your work, oh 'artist if flesh, blood, and bone?'" countered the woman, a wicked grin spreading across her face.

The killer's laughter was silenced before it could really start. "...Ah."

The witch didn't give the killer time to respond, waving her pipe through the air. "Come my golden butterflies, spread through this humble abode and show this amateur how to create a true murder. After that, we shall aim for the cup, and with it, the path to the Golden Land shall truly open!" At their master's command, the golden familiars swarmed about, cleaning up blood stains, moving bodies and murder weapons, changing wounds, and locking doors. For their master was the Golden Witch who creates closed room mysteries, and they must forge a crime worthy of her name.

And with this murder, the 7th pair is born. Amidst the war of Kings and Heroes, a Witch had crashed the festivities.

postings are merely previews for me since I have issues with formatting on it. See updates here:

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./1718-A-Witch-s-Tale-of-the-4th-Holy-Grail-War-%28Fate-Zero-Umineko%29


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